My Daughter the Inventor

One of my greatest joys in life has been watching my children grow up. This also has been sad because I know they will one day be grown and moving on to the life of their own making. For right now, however, I enjoy each moment and there was one of those button-popping moments a few weeks ago.

My daughter is a much more social individual and school, while she does well, is more of a social venue then it is a learning one. So, this year when science fair time rolled around and she was getting excited about being in her first real science fair, she declared she wanted to build a robot. This was the first year the district had opened up the competition to include this type of project.

We discussed what type of robot she wanted to build and she eventually settled on trying to develop one that could write letters. Her motivation was that she wanted to see if something could be built to help individuals who were in some way handicapped and had difficulty writing but could use a keyboard.

We pulled out an old Mindstorms kit and she set to work. She worked on many different ideas that she saw in her head. She sketched and constructed – then reconstructed an started over. She asked questions. She sought the advice and expertise of her brother. She researched the Internet for ideas and designs that might help her.

She played with sensors and reconfigured things over and over until she arrived at a point that she felt her robot would be able to write at least a few letters. Then it was on to the programming. I showed her how to build a program using the software provided and gave her a few examples of programs to guide her. Unfortunately we ran into problems getting the old radio transmitter to work with the RCX. Over and over we tried. I finally told her that I thought there was a firmware issue with the RCX and I would try to get it fixed. We were not able to solve the problem in time for the fair.

In her accompanying paper she wrote about her ideas and the road blocks that kept her from completely accomplishing her goals – but she added at the end, it would be possible to develop a tiny robot that could be programmed to write and that it could be accomplished on a small scale so it could be portable. This, she thought, would enable someone who could not write to be able to have a tiny robotic machine that could be used to, at the least, sign an individuals name for them.

Sunday morning we headed off and set up the display, complete with prototype, report, traditional tri-fold board. During the first hour she was interviewed by the team responsible for judging the entries in the invention category. She handled herself with professionalism and confidently as I listened from a little distance. The judges asked her about her experience and what she thought about the fact that she wasn’t able to accomplish all of her goals. She explained that though the robot didn’t work the way she had intended, she felt she was successful in determining if her goal could, with time and resources, be accomplished. Of course she explained it in her very grown up eleven-year-old vernacular.

We didn’t know if she would win an award and of course my cautionary parenting gene kicked in to help prepare her for any eventual outcome. The rest of the day was spent watching professional scientists do experiments, give lessons, and talk about their own inventions. Right after lunch the ribbons were placed on the students work – she was so excited to see a first place ribbon. She wondered aloud, “Dad, do you think I will win the category?”

To close out the day the awards were announced, with the Inventions category being first. The announcer began, “And in the Inventions category,” (long pause) “I am sure you are wondering,” (another pause) “the category winner is . . .” Then my daughters name came out of his mouth. I looked at my son and said, “Your sister won!” He smiled. He had placed first each of the three years he took part. Of course I moved quickly to the front to snap her picture. She went on stage to receive her $500 scholarship and I stood there being as proud as a parent can possibly be.

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